Character Creation
Creating a character involves several steps including choosing a race and generating attributes. Before Starting Before you start creating a character, it is always a good idea to have an idea of the character you want to create. This will provide a common theme that you can use when making decisions during the creation process. An important thing to know about the Chronicles System is that there are no classes. The skills your character knows and their proficiency in those skills in conjunction with your characters traits determine what your character can and can not do. For instance, it is possible for any character to learn the Shadowmancy magical discipline; however, only a character with the Thaumaturge trait can actually use the magical discipline to cast a spell. Character Examples Here are some example characters to give you ideas: *Sea Witch *Dwarf Soldier *Gunslinger *Shou Monk *Troll Hunter *Ogre Berserker Choose Your Race The first decision you face when creating a new character is race. There are many races in the Chronicles System (here is a full list) and depending on the type of campaign being ran, not all of those races will be available. Also, make sure you have GM approval for your race choice before continuing. Race can affect what your base attributes are and what skills and abilities that your character will have available to them. Generate Attributes Attribute Descriptions The next step is to generate the attributes for the character. There are 10 attributes in the Chronicles System: *Strength (STR) - This is a measure of how physically strong the character is and is used to determine how severe the damage is. *Size (SIZ) - This is the measure of physical size, both height and weight. When the SIZ score exceeds the STR score the character is overweight. When the STR score exceeds the SIZ score the character is physically fit. *Agility (AGL) - Agility is a measure of your characters balance and coordination. This attributes adjusts melee combat skills and some ranged combat skills. *Reflexes (REF) - Reflexes determines how fast your character ran react to a situation. It is used to determine Initiative and adjusts your Dodge skill. *Constitution (CON) - Constitution is how healthy your character is and how resistant to toxins they are. Having a higher constitution also increases your Stamina pool and your Stamina Recovery Rate. *Fortitude (FOR) - Fortitude also increases your character's stamina pool and having a high fortitude can reduce the severity of the damage that your character takes. *Reasoning (REA) - Reasoning is a measure of your character's memory, intellect, and general education. Having a low reasoning score doesn't necessarily mean that your character is dumb, they may have very little education. *Willpower (WIL) - Willpower determines your character's raw mental strength and force of will. This attributes adjusts skills and abilities in the realm of psychics. *Spirit (SPR) - Spirit is the measure of your character's strength casting spells and skills and abilities related to magic. Also, spirit increase the Stamina pool. *Perception (PER) - Perception determines your characters general awareness and how sharp their senses are. Generation Methods There are several ways to generate attributes for your new character. Ask your GM what method they are going to use. For your convenience, two common methods of generating attributes are described below. Keep in mind that all races have a racial minimum and maximum for all attributes and your character's base attribute ranks must fall within those limits. Also, most races have one or more racial attribute modifiers that will either increase or decrease the final attribute score. There is an additional limit places on strength. No character, no matter the race or method used to generate attributes, can have a natural Strength rank greater than 150% of their Size attribute. Random A common method for generating attributes is to generate them randoming with dice rolls. Roll 3d6+3 and discard the lost die. Record the result and repeat until you have 10 values. Take those values and assign them to your character's attributes as you fit. An variation of this allows you to choose your SIZ score rather than roll for it. In this case, roll dice for 9 values instead of the 10. Point Pool This method allows the player to choose their attributes scores by using points from a pool and the size attribute is chosen without using points. The player starts with a pool of 100 points and a rank of any attribute cost 1 point. This allows the player to create a slightly above average character if they choose to give each attribute a rank of 11 with 2 points left to distribute. Racial Modifiers Next, you will need to apply any racial modifiers to your attributes. Calculate Attribute Adjustments Attribute adjustments, or adjusts, are a way for attributes to directly effect a character's skills. For example, a character that has a high Spirit score will be better at spell casting than someone with a low Spirit score. Most attribute adjusts are positive, with the exact amount dependent on the attribute score. However, if the characters attribute is too low, below 10, then the attribute adjust becomes negative. For attributes that are 10 or higher, the formula for calculating the adjust is simple. All you do is subtract 10 from the final score and multiple the result by 2. As an examples take a size score of 14. To calculate the size adjustment, subtract 10 from the score, so 14-10=4. Then multiply the result by 2, so 4x2=8. This gives an adjustment of 8 to skills that use the size attributes. For attributes that are below 10, consult the table below to determine the adjust. Record Stats Haul/Lift Capacity Hit Points The total number of hit points that a character has is determined by the following formula: Hit Points = (2*SIZ) + FOR + WIL + SPR - 10 This pool is then divided in half into a bludgeon pool and a wound pool. If there is a remainder assign it to the wound pool. Healing Rate Wounds take time to heal. A character heals faster or slower depending upon the value of his or her Constitution rank. Refer to the healing rates chart to determine the rate of healing for various wounds. The chart indicates how long it takes for the character to heal one point of damage of that type. Calculating Stun/Pain Threshold Some characters will be large and sturdy enough to ignore the effects of pain, stuns, and knock-out attacks... to a degree. More information regarding pain penalties is given in the chapter on Health and Damage. Calculate a character's Stun/Pain Threshold by doing the following. (SIZ + FORT - 20) / 2 Round up and multiply result by 5, ignore negative results. Stamina Just like every character has a number of health points to indicate damage and condition of the character, every character has stamina points that indicate the amount of energy that the character has. Stamina energy is used for various activities, such as fighting, spell casting, and travel. More details are given in later sections concerning game mechanics and stamina. STAM = (WIL + SPR + CON + FOR) Stamina Recovery Rate The character's base Stamina Recovery Rate is determined by dividing the character's CON by 3, rounded up. This indicates the number of stamina points recovered for each hour of quality rest. In a given 24 hour period, a character can only rest a maximum of 12 hours. Any further rest provides no benefit to the character. Depending on the campaign setting, character race, characters may have adjustments to their base rate. This can be further modified by physical condition (such as damage or poisoning) and activities (sleeping, resting, etc.) according to the game master and the setting. CON / 3, rounded up Movement A character has two movement rates. Free movement and major movement. Heavy, bulky characters may be slower than smaller characters. All humanoid characters have a base Major Movement rate of 10. It is modified by the following conditions: *''STR - SIZE'': A character with high strength relative to his size will have a higher movement rate. The maximum bonus is +3 but no there is no limit to the possible penalty for low strength. *''Armor'': The initiative penalty associated with any armor or protective gear is also applied to the character's major movement rate. *''Short stride'': For every 6 inches or part thereof that the character is shorter than 5', a -1 penalty is applied to major movement. Maximum penalty is -5. *''Long stride'': For each foot, rounded normally, that a character's height is over 6', a +1 bonus is granted. A character's Free Movement rate is calculated by dividing the Major Movement rate by 3 and rounding normally. A character's Major Movement rate is also a close approximation of the maximum sustainable speed (in MPH) that the character can achieve. For those curious, the exact MPH rating is Major Movement x1.0227 Karma Characters have a starting number of Karma points equal to their Spirit score. Karma can be used to affect the outcomes of many game events. This is the maximum amount of Karma that the character can have at any given time. Karma is gradually recovered over time or granted as an award by the game keeper. Karma can be raised above its starting point with bonus points handed out by the Game Keeper. If Karma is reduced below the character's Spirit attribute, the character will recover at a rate of one point per week until her Karma equals her Spirit. Defense Rating Instructions Purchase Skills The number of skills points that a character has available at creation is determined by the characters race. The character also has a number of skills points equal to twice their reasoning score that can be used to purchase education/trade type skills. See the section on Skills for a full list of skills. Skill Point Table